Former Tecumseh site attracts Guy & O’Neill

Sitting vacant for almost a decade, the former Tecumseh plant will have a new tenant as of Aug. 1. The Village of Grafton Plan Commission on June 27 approved a conditional use permit for Guy & O’Neill to operate in the space located at 900 North Ave. The Fredonia-based private label manufacturing company produces wet wipes and liquid fill. Guy & O’Neill also holds the original patent for bathing wipes and have expanded into household, beauty, personal and adult care products. “The village is happy to see a long-vacant industrial building partially occupied,” said Jessica Wolff, the village director of planning and development. “It will create jobs and economic activity for the community.” The company plans to occupy 167,700 of the 342,000-square-foot building for warehousing to store raw materials for its products. It is leasing the northern section of the building from Phoenix Investors in Milwaukee. The Tecumseh plant is located in a largely residential area. At the Plan Commission meeting, some residents were concerned about traffic from trucks disrupting the peace and quite. “How often and how many trucks will there be driving by a day?” resident Lorraine Stencel, who lives near the site, asked. According to the company, it expects to have as few as one to two trucks a week, but as operations expand the traffic could reach 13 trucks per day. The warehouse will be in operation Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. There will be five to six employees on site. The company may expand to three shifts per day and some weekend hours. The permit that was approved, however, does not let the business operate the warehouse during the night or on the weekends. According to Wolff, if the company decides to expand its hours of operation, it will have to amend its conditional use permit with the Plan Commission. Guy & O’Neill is the second tenant to occupy the building this year. The Saukville Walmart previously used the south section for storage. Walmart has already vacated the property. Tecumseh vacated the building in 2009.